God’s Mind!

‘Now the Lord said to Samuel, “You have mourned long enough for Saul. I have rejected him as king of Israel, so fill your flask with olive oil and go to Bethlehem. Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected one of his sons to be my king.”1 Sam.16:1.

God can change His mind. Even though this is coming as a shock to some of us. However, it is one truth we need to know and pray never happens in our case. With Samson, it was an angel that told his parents this boy is going to be a Nazarene to the day of his death. God never said this Samson was going to grind corn for the philistines. Samson kept pushing the boundary; he kept sleeping with the prostitutes and nothing happened. He kept behaving like a spoilt brat. Over and over until they cut off his locks, took out his eyes, and he began to grind cord. The Bible says that Jesus is ‘full of grace and truth’. The people that tell you God is only about grace are lying. David understood that God is full of grace and truth. God changes His mind. With the Jews, Jesus came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But God changed His mind and says ‘I am going to open the salvation to the gentiles and I am going to provoke you’. God can change His mind. I know people that God led to the particular person they were to marry. And they reacted wrongly or said the wrong thing and God changed His mind. Do you need more examples?

The second thing that stands out when you read 1 Samuel 16: 1-13 is that God can set up a plot. “Take a heifer with you,” the Lord replied, “and say that you have come to make a sacrifice to the Lord’ 1 Sam.16:2. God does not always deliver by might. Sometimes God delivers by wisdom. Samuel brought his concerns about Saul before God and the Lord set up a plot. The third thing that stands out is that the number one prophet in the land, Samuel, almost made a mistake. Carnality is a very dangerous thing. To be carnal simply means to make decisions based on your senses – what you can smell, what you can feel, what makes you feel good, and so on. The prophet was about to be carnal, ‘Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!” He was making the judgment based on his physical senses – his sense of sight. And God saying ‘No! Make the decision from your spirit. For what I want to do in your life eyes have not seen, ears have not heard”. In other words, the senses have not even perceived what God wants to do with you. So you cannot afford to be carnal.

Prayer: Father, examine me and purge me completely of carnality. Help me never to make spiritual decisions based on my physical senses, in Jesus Name.